Smashwords Update

So I mastered the template. All good. Haven't got the hang of the cover yet as no matter how big an image I use, it doesn't like it. I am going to have to get a a professional cover designer involved. But, the books don't sell in the numbers that justifies a cover costing $300. A conundrum As we sit here now, I have "sold" about 230 copies of a novel on Smashwords. That's in about 48 hours. Fantastic! I let the reader set the price, so they pay me what they think is fair. Weirdly 230 of them have all decided on the same price! Yep, you guessed it - they all thought my work was worth $0. All of them set the price as zero! You would have thought there would be one kind soul who thought it was worth a dime, but not so far.

Reader Set Price

Ok, this is a cool feature of the Smashwords Store - the Reader Sets Price.

It's pretty much the same as a free promotion - the books fly out and most people set the price as 'free'. Who knew?  But some kind souls, or people who value what you wrote, don't set it as free!

This is my excitement for the day. Now back to writing.

Smashwords

I've spent pretty much all night trying to format a manuscript for uploading to Smashwords. I would say "in the end" - but it wasn't the end at all - I downloaded the template manuscript and I spent a long time following it, to what I thought was the letter. However, I still have autovetter errors.

The trouble is, it tells you that you have them, but it doesn't tell you what they are. Or at least as far as I can figure out. So I now need to go through the whole manuscript and guess what Smashword's Autovetter thinks is wrong.

I see from trawling the internet on this subject that I am not alone.

Still, going through the Youtube tutorials, reading the style guide and ploughing through the template have made me a better person.

But, it will make me give up on trying to publish on Smashwords unless someone can convince me it's worth the crazy effort of trying to second guess what their autovetter thinks is wrong.